Natala la la la ... ... ...

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

funicular 

5 days in mexico can restore your soul.

How?
- good margarita's
- boca bento -- yes, that's asian-latin fusion
- sunshine sunshine sunshine
- boat rides on blue ocean water with fishies and pelicans
- great friends (thank you alexia, kathy, laurel, dulcy and gavin)
- IM's with mum and sheils and jb
- a pink & green funicular transport thing to take us to our mountain villa
- crazy taxi drivers taking us back and forth from the pool to dinner
- watching the NCAA tournament with Spanish commentary

Before I went to mexico I had been caught in a wind tunnel. I truly couldn't see top from bottom. My heart was broken from my recent breakup. I had pretty much flipped out from the pain and intensity of it all. I had lost my sense of self. In mexico, thanks to all that sunshine, I was able to get recentered and forgive myself. I figured out that it is irrelevent if you forgive the other person or if they forgive you -- if you can't honor yourself. We've all got demons to slay, and I feel like i was finally able to slay a couple of mine. Breakups are hard things, and as this was with someone I had fallen in love with, I took it hard. But I'm ok, and next time I'll be that much better...in fact next time, I'm going to immediately hop a plane to France (where I at least speak the language) for my R&R. :)

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

gada be 

ooooh - robert scoble pointed me to this cool search tool (taggregator): Gada.be!

Check out the results for Mix06:
http://gada.be/d/mix06

Monday, March 20, 2006

britney spears + kevin federline !!! 

**breaking news**

Just got back from a fabu dinner at Valentino at the Venetian. Fabu because the food was great, the wine amazing and i saw Britney Spears + Kevin Federline!! No kidding.

Here's the scoop:
- In walks this guy with a not-so-recently shaved face, loose jeans, half-smile and that direct, "yeah, I know you want me" (but you don't) swagger.
- My table mates and I are in the midst of a fascinating discussion about religion, but i'm looking at this guy going, who is it? who is it? and then it hits me!! Kevin Federline. And i start to wonder, who's he with???
- Then he passes and right behind him is BRITNEY!! She looked so cute. Her hair a mass of short golden curls, she's smiling and happy, and she's got that life is good swagger going on. She was wearing a fitted brown sweater, tight jeans, makeup and hair that had to be done by stylist.
- They were followed by a bodyguard who took them to a private dining room and then left. Awww -- looks like they were having a romantic dinner.

Net-Net: Clearly they are together, figuring it out, "staying in the room" as my sis likes to say and enjoying each other. Good deal.

And did I mention that britney looked great?? She did!!!

getting into the mix 

I'm at Mix06 this week...

What is Mix06?
"a 72 hour conversation with Microsoft"....but what does that mean you ask?
- Demos like crazy
- softies around to answer your questions and listen to your ideas
- information on our product lines that impact your web experience -- Atlas, IE etc.
- developer centric, with access to tools for you to demo, test and experience
- msft's version of web 2.0
- fun, fun, fun


Check out photos from mix06 on Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/mix06/

Or the latest news on Technorati:
http://technorati.com/search/mix06

or attend virtually @ virtual mix:
http://blog.mix06.com/virtualmix/

how sweet it is! 

Photos: Associated Press

Bradley! Bradley! Bradley!! George Mason!

There's our cinderella story. Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.

win or lose, it's how you play the game 

(Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)


So, of course i'm sad that Arizona lost. But they played well, more together then they had been all year, and it was a great game! They were super scrappy, and i love scrappy. Hassan. Mustafa. Marcus! And he's only a freshman!!

mad love to the wildcats. mad love. and I can't wait to watch them play next year. Next year, they are gonna be tough.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

congratulations wade and alexia! 

Two of my favorite people just got engaged -- and I can't be happier for them!! Relationships like theirs -- where there is so much fun, companionship and love -- truly make me believe in the wonder of the world. Congrats Wade & Alexia (.com ;) -- wishing you all the best!!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

5-12 

Photos courtesy of CBS Sportsline.


There's nothing quite like the first day of the NCAA tournament. No matter how distracted I am, no matter what else is going on, when the tournament begins...there's a smile on my face. In the past I've worked from home on the 1st Thursday & Friday of the tourney -- i mean 32 games over two days??? Pure beautiful delicious goodness. Today, I tracked the games when I could via CBS Sportline and it has been fabulous:
- Boston College winning (woohooo! JB's screaming eagles!) in double overtime? Oh my.
- The classic 5-12 matchup loss with Nevada losing to Montana. I mean really, MT over NV. uh huh. you betcha.
- and those Vols! TN came through, but it was rough...
- Zig! Zag -- comes back in the last two minutes to WIN over Xavier -- phew! I'm sure there were a lot of relieved sighs on that victory...i know my bracket needed it!
- UCLA holding up the Pac-10 pride with a crushing victory over Belmont. Yes, Belmont? Who are they? Same folks who play with Southern is my guess ;-)

It's almost 7:00...and i've got to run to dinner and then a slumber party...but there's still the Washington game to see and the Duke game...it's gonna be a good, good night...and tomorrow it starts with another 16 games including my beloved wildcats at 9:30 AM PST. BearDown Wildcats, BearDown! and of course, mad love to the Golden Bears. Grrr!

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

it is that time of year... 

MARCH MADNESS!!!

24 hours!!

sweet.

JB is trying to convince me that JJ Redick is hot, but well, he's a duke player...and you'all know how i feel about duke...

Photo Credit: nbadraft.net profiles

mad love to lute and the wildcats of course:


Photo Credit: Arizona Wildcat Online


Courtesy: Associated Press


Courtsey ESPN

Saturday, March 11, 2006

friends rock 

i have come to realize that friends (and family) are the most precious asset. and that, quite frankly, my friends rock. thank you.

natala

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Lent Day 2: Bacon & Snow 

Bacon is soo good! I am having yogurt + berries + side of bacon for breakfast. Yumm.

Also it is SNOWING in NYC! SNOW! I'm on the 23rd floor and i woke up to snow flurries. Sooooo cool.

Lent Day 1.5: music & vino 

Last night I met up with my friend Baratunde for dinner and a show -- his girlfriend Mieka Pauley was playing at Joe's Pub with Brendan James. Baratunde and I met about 8 years ago at a Philosophy Camp at Rutgers. Yes, I am that geeky. Anyways, we've kept up over the years and finally got to hang out again ** 8 years later **! It was a blast. He's such good people. He is also funny people. Seriously - i highly recommend checking him out on YouTube or his podcasts on iTunes...(find it all at baratunde.com)

The show was amazing! Mieka is awesome. Seriously everyone, Listen to her! She has a soulful voice that's both enchanting and fun. I personally thought she was better then Brendan James -- who also has this amazing voice -- but his songs were too romantic and sad for me.

Speaking of sad romance, I made an amendment to my lent committments: I'm allowed to have red wine.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Lent Day 1: are pretzels bread? 

I am now fully in the swing of lent. Except that I'm at Search Conference which provides us with not-so-delicious lunches. The lunch consisted of turkey sandwiches, pretzels and a brownie. I ate the turkey and cheese not the BREAD. But i toyed with the pretzels. Are they bread? Are they on the list? Off the list? I decided to have a couple. Then i started to think -- if i were buying one of those warm pretzels -- i would totally identify them as bread! these little hard pretzels -- duh! they are just stale bread. So to clarify for myself. YES! Pretzels are bread! So they are on the "off" list.